Spellmaker
Spellmaker (マスター, Master, in Japan) is the miniboss of Stage 2 of Rainbow Palace. It has five hearts, the highest amount for a "bigger" boss like Spellmaker. It's weakness is its shadow, and Bomberman must kick bombs at the shadow to damage Spellmaker. This is not quite as easy as the fight with Cerberus, as Sirius does not give Bomberman remote bombs for the battle. Getting Spellmaker's gold cards is difficult; however, it is possible to get them by chance without even trying, however unlikely and random. Cards Spellmaker calls it's attacks using a rainbow-coloured deck of eight cards; each is one of the Major Arcana of the standard Tarot deck. In the Japanese version, Spellmaker also says the name of the card in English as it is played, but in the Western releases all eight cards have the same "ah ha ha!" cue. The cards and attacks are as follows: *'The Sun' (red, a picture of a white circle on a shield-like design) - A five-pointed circle of Spellmaker masks appear and descend to the ground, summoning a fiery dragon which slowly follows Bomberman around and will damage him on contact. The dragon is invulnerable and vanishes by itself after a set time. Spellmaker will play other cards while it is in play. *'The Star' (yellow, a picture of a star) - The same five-pointed circle appears, but this time rises into the air, followed by a giant foot appearing to crush the area below. *'The Lovers' (pink, a picture of a heart inside an 'X') - Spellmaker disappears and a giant Spellmaker mask appears, spitting out a series of random powerups. Taking any of these removes the Gold Card given for free at the start of the battle; they include all normal powerups, as well as bombs which explode, heavy weights which crush Bomberman if they land on him but are harmless once on the ground, the Skull powerups normally only seen in multiplayer, and a few other seemingly useless items. After this attack completes, Spellmaker will rise up from the floor, which is the best time to attempt to destroy it's hat for the Gold Card. *'The World' (green, a picture of the Earth surrounded by a swirl) - The room fades out to an image of space with the Earth and Moon visible, and dozens of stars fall all over the arena. A hit will stun Bomberman. The attack isn't dangerous in itself, but Spellmaker will usually play two other cards before it plays out. *'Justice' (green-blue, a picture of a dagger) - Spellmaker throws slow-moving cards at Bomberman's current location, which cause a brief swirl of energy before exploding like a normal bomb; the explosion is the only part that deals damage. Essentially, Spellmaker is just kicking bombs at you that don't stun you if they hit you. *'The Moon' (pale blue, a picture of a crescent moon) - Giant fists appear one at a time in the air above Bomberman briefly, before dropping to the ground below them, crushing Bomberman if he's caught underneath. The attack can consist of anything from two to seven fists, and Spellmaker will often play another card before it ends. *'The Devil' (dark blue, a picture of a ram's skull) - Spellmaker's shadow extends towards Bomberman's current position and forms a hand that grabs the ground where he was standing. The "arm" doesn't count as part of Spellmaker's shadow for purposes of damage, and the hand only takes hits for purposes of getting the Gold Card; hitting it does no damage to the boss. *'Death' (violet, a picture of two crossed scythes) - Spellmaker's shadow appears behind it holding a scythe, then vanishes, a green arc sweeping across the ground a short distance in front. If Spellmaker is forced to evade, it will perform the attack as soon as it lands. Only the arc deals damage; being between it and Spellmaker is safe. A kicked bomb that is hit by the arc will stop. Spellmaker's card choices aren't completely random; it can't play a card if the effect of the same card is still in play (for example, it cannot have two Sun dragons in play, or a double star shower from playing World twice), and certain cards have limits to what cards can follow (for example, it only plays the final four early-match cards during World's effect). Spellmaker typically won't play the first four cards until it has taken about 50% damage, and seems to have a lower probability of picking these cards than the other four even when they are in play. Strategy Spellmaker, like Cerberus, will evade kicked bombs, this time by flying through the air. It can also evade thrown bombs by vanishing, leaving it's cape fluttering in the air. If it does this, it will peek up from below the ground for a moment before rising up, making it an ideal time to attack Spellmaker's hat for the Gold Card. The Lovers card can be exploited to power up Bomberman; since the powerups are carried over from life to life, as long as Bomberman isn't on his last life for the current continue he can grab them, die, and return to a state of having the "no items" Gold Card. Spellmaker has five hearts, and each one is equivalent to two hits from a regular bomb. Once defeated, Spellmaker is completely destroyed, except for it's mask. Gold Cards #Burn it's hat #Burn it's cape #Leave a bomb in the Devil card's hand so it explodes before it closes. #Do not take any of the items #Defeat it by target time Trivia * The US and EU versions contain unused, re-recorded voice clips of Spellmaker calling out the card names for it's attacks (with The Devil called out as "Evil"), but for whatever reason it only uses a single generic "ah ha ha!" cue for all of them. It is possible that the non-naming of the Devil card was part of a failed attempt to get around Nintendo of America's notoriously strict stance on religious and occult references in games. Gallery Spellmaker.png|Appearance Spellmaker 2.png|Manual Scan Spellmaker's Mask.png|Spellmaker's Mask Spellmaker 3.png|Item Drop Attack Spellmaker - Giant Foot.png|Giant Foot Attack Category:Bosses Category:Villains Category:Bomberman 64